AudioKinesis Cabs Part VI...

[steubig]

tc112 v1 can switch off the horn. (which i was trying to say in my earlier post)

to my ear, the mesa is voiced to a more "rock" sound.

 

[Dee-man]

Duke, am I right in recalling that the TCv1 & v2 cabs allow you to switch off the horn entirely? Please set me straight on that. If I'm right, that might be helpful to this line of inquiry - no chastising, pls .

The v.1 has a switch that allows you to turn the horn off. I don't believe v.2 has that feature, but I could be mistaken.

 

[steubig]

my guess is that the guys who are playing on erykah's stuff are largely using rounds, though i have not researched this.

i use both flats and rounds, still voting for eq.

 

[adam montminy]

Yeah my Walkabout definitely has a rock voice but you can get much smoother when you turn the mids way down. For some styles I actually turn the passive mid all the way down and roll of some treble too and that pretty much gets me in the ballpark. I'm pretty married to this head to be honest, even though that hasn't stopped me from buying lots of others! Thanks for the replies, guys.

 

[TomB]

Yeah my Walkabout definitely has a rock voice but you can get much smoother when you turn the mids way down. For some styles I actually turn the passive mid all the way down and roll of some treble too and that pretty much gets me in the ballpark. I'm pretty married to this head to be honest, even though that hasn't stopped me from buying lots of others! Thanks for the replies, guys.

I use a TC115 v1. IME, turning off the horn makes a less dramatic difference than one might expect - the voice of the Eminence in mine seems pretty full range, and the horn mostly emphasizes and clarifies the upper mids & highs, but they're still present with it off. I do think of the TC as a WYSIWYG cab (what you send is what you get). It's smoothly-voiced (flat-ish?) and very full-range, so you can work on the bass/pedal/amp end of things to achieve your sonic goals. As has been discussed here a lot, the pluggable ports are nothing short of a miracle for low-end control in a live setting. It's certainly the most versatile cab I've ever used. But I've never tried a Hathor...

 

[DukeLeJeune]

imho, if you want old school, you may have to have a way to turn off the tweeters or horns.

i said that i liked the ability of the tc112 v2 to do that and was chastised for it—but it still think it to be true.

I apologize if I was the one who administered the chastisement! It may have come across like that as I was explaining my reason for discontinuing the tweeter killswitch. I think you are the first person to ask for it back... well now it's you and Adam, it looks like.

Steubig, do you think that early TC112 might have worked for Adam's situation with the tweeter off?

Duke, am I right in recalling that the TCv1 & v2 cabs allow you to switch off the horn entirely? Please set me straight on that. If I'm right, that might be helpful to this line of inquiry - no chastising, pls .

I'm pretty sure it was just the Version 1 that had the tweeter killswitch. I don't remember including it on any Version 2's but it's possible that I did.

I can get fairly close with the switches down and a lot of knob turning on my amp but it just still sounds kind of growly - not in a bad way of course, just not what you want for that thick and smooth thing. It's hard to describe but I think it's that bite at the edge of each note. The kind of sound I'm looking for has no edge - just round and fat and smooth. Think of the bass tones in stuff like Raphael Saadiq (Instant Vintage), Erykah Badu (Mama's Gun), D'Angelo, etc. I realize of course that those are studio albums so there are a whole lot of things going on there but that's the general sound I'm talking about.
I would describe the Hathor baseline as very clear with an articulate edge, even with the switches down. I have no idea if the TC115 would get me any closer but I figured it's more of a blank slate to start with. I find most bass cabs out there to be voiced firmly with a "rock" tone in mind but if you're looking for the opposite sort of tone, it can be hard to un-bake it from the cab. Don't get me wrong, I'm not getting rid of my 1533 any time soon but just wondering if there's something that leans in the other direction.

Thank you for going into so much detail!

That sounds to me like a midless tweetless tone. I haven't actively pursued that because I didn't think anyone who wanted that kind of tone would be buying my cabs because of the premium I charge for my mid (or tweet) and crossover. Also, my wooferchoices have all started out with a very different tone on mind.

Adam, is the bottom end of the 1533 "in the ballpark"?

I'm also very curious about the Birdhaus cabs. Duke told me the voicing is somewhere between the TC and Hathor IIRC. Are there any players that can expand on that at all? I know they're really new so I'm sure there aren't too many out there yet but maybe someone has compared them to the other AK cabs.

In the Birdhaus cabs, I've been choosing drivers that have a fair amount of top end energy, so again a different goal than what you're looking for.

 

[TomB]

I apologize if I was the one who administered the chastisement! It may have come across like that as I was explaining my reason for discontinuing the tweeter killswitch. I think you are the first person to ask for it back... well now it's you and Adam, it looks like.

Steubig, do you think that early TC112 might have worked for Adam's situation with the tweeter off?

I'm not Steubig, but I also use the TC112 v1. Now that you mention it, the woofer can be pretty dark (smooth?) with the horn off and the ports open. ...interesting!

 

[DukeLeJeune]

I think Adam just described a p bass with flats through a b-15.

Adam, does that sound about right to you?

 

[steubig]

duke, it was not you. it was former member on tb.

 

[adam montminy]

Adam, does that sound about right to you?

Everything except the B-15!

 

[adam montminy]

Adam, is the bottom end of the 1533 "in the ballpark"?

I absolutely love the low end. I think you might be right about looking for a woofer-only cab for the styles I mentioned. It's not really the highs that are the issue - it's the mids. Also, most bass amps are much more scooped in the mids than what I'm using so sometimes I have to roll them all the way down which is fine. And again, the 1533 is perfect for half of what I play and I can get it almost perfect for the other styles. I'm just being super picky, that's all!

 

[steubig]

so, because i like to fixate on stuff like this.

i was in the car and had erykah's last full alb in it. gave "window seat" a spin. while i know it's not one of the tunes given as an example, it might be close enough.

what i hear is some serious low lows and not much way up high. maybe some low mid growls? and some compression. (sorry, i'm not very scientific about this stuff!)

which leads me back to eq or maybe the amp.

if adam digs the basic mesa vibe, it might be worth checking into the d-800+, as that has some serious eq versatility and, possibly more important, a deep switch. if that amp didn't have a certain something lacking that i "need," i would have bought it as i think you really get some great sounds out of it—including something like the sound we're discussing.

anyway…

 

[adam montminy]

That sounds to me like a midless tweetless tone.

I'm thinking maybe something like a Greenboy Bassic 15 might do the trick for my neo-soul sound use the 1533 for everything else. Thanks a lot for the suggestions, everyone. I'm sorry to highjack this great thread all day here! Carry on

 

[steubig]

I'm not Steubig

be grateful.

 

[adam montminy]

so, because i like to fixate on stuff like this.

i was in the car and had erykah's last full alb in it. gave "window seat" a spin. while i know it's not one of the tunes given as an example, it might be close enough.

what i hear is some serious low lows and not much way up high. maybe some low mid growls? and some compression. (sorry, i'm not very scientific about this stuff!)

which leads me back to eq or maybe the amp.

if adam digs the basic mesa vibe, it might be worth checking into the d-800+, as that has some serious eq versatility and, possibly more important, a deep switch. if that amp didn't have a certain something lacking that i "need," i would have bought it as i think you really get some great sounds out of it—including something like the sound we're discussing.

anyway…

Yeah I tried the D-800 and really liked it and have been thinking about getting the 800+ sometime. It's very warm and smooth.

 

[steubig]

I'm sorry to highjack this great thread all day here! Carry on

naw, man, this was great. we're talking, ya know, musical applications.

 

[steubig]

Yeah I tried the D-800 and really liked it and have been thinking about getting the 800+ sometime. It's very warm and smooth.

i was really impressed with its wide range of tonal possibilities.

i felt like i could get wetton to barrett (within reason) out of it.

my suggestion is just sit with it and twiddle knobs.

 

[adam montminy]

I'm gonna be a real jerk and throw out an idea that just occurred to me, although I'm sure Duke must have already thought about this. What about a Hathor with a kill switch instead of the mid and treble switches? It could be like a full range woofer in the down position and full grindy mids in the up position. Or would the result be more is less what's already going on with the current switches?

 

[RasGK]

Yeah my Walkabout definitely has a rock voice but you can get much smoother when you turn the mids way down. For some styles I actually turn the passive mid all the way down and roll of some treble too and that pretty much gets me in the ballpark. I'm pretty married to this head to be honest, even though that hasn't stopped me from buying lots of others! Thanks for the replies, guys.

As others have suggested, I'd recommend you try a different amp for this, since the Audiokinesis stuff is pretty flat in general, and with not much baked in tone to start with. I'd say a Tecamp Puma (especially a Powersoft version), or an Eich for that matter, would get you there pretty easily, with the taste knob and some treble and hi-mid cut, since natively they have very smooth and creamy mids and highs, and a big, round and deep low end, perfect for r&b, ( these heads, unlike many others, have a very low freq. point on it's HPF or no HPF at all, I'm not exactly sure which...).
Also, the freq. point on the bass knob is very low, around 30hz, so a little boost there would make for a great and deep low end, which I think your Hathor would reproduce amazingly well. Just my .02

 

[steubig]

re the puma. i have a 500 and a bonafide. i wish both of those had a deep switch.

still they're my amp of choice.

one other thought, some of those badu tracks sound like the parts have a b string involved.